Archive for July, 2014

Old Navy is looking to online video this back-to-school season as CMO Ivan Wicksteed works to steer the retailer away from its reliance on TV.

At the center of that effort is an online music video for an original song called, “Unlimited,” which plays on the anxieties of the first day of school. The online video aims to build on Old Navy’s success with a recent series of TV spots starring Amy Poehler, whose outtakes went viral on YouTube. Ms. Poehler is also slated to appear in TV ads during the back-to-school season.

“We’re trying to produce content that lives outside of TV,” said Mr. Wicksteed. “It’s more organic content that people want to watch.”

Johnson & Johnson’s flagship baby brand is launching its biggest ever social-media effort to reach millennial moms. Initially, it will be focused on a promise to remove controversial ingredients from products in what the company calls a move toward “transparency communications.”

“Our Promise,” the first of what will ultimately be more than 40 videos in the program, launches today, featuring Johnson’s Baby brand employees, J&J colleagues and their families making origami storks from paper where they’ve written their individual commitments to consumers, often along the lines of putting safety first.

The idea was inspired by a Japanese legend that “when you make 1,000 origami cranes it signifies a hope granted and a promise fulfilled,” J&J notes in the video. “We are moms, dads, parents just like you,” according to text in the video. “We heard your concern about certain ingredients in our products. Although always safe, for your peace of mind, we removed them.”

Zillow agreed to purchase Trulia for $3.5 billion in an all-stock deal that is designed to make the combined entity the largest in online real estate advertising.

Trulia shareholders will receive 0.444 shares of Zillow for each share of Trulia, the companies said in a statement today. That’s equivalent to Zillow offering $70.53 a share for Trulia, or 25% above Trulia’s closing price of $56.35 on July 25. Zillow shareholders will own two-thirds of the combined company, while Trulia stockholders will own a third.

Trulia Chief Executive Officer Pete Flint will continue leading the site and join Zillow’s board. He will report to Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff, the companies said. A second Trulia board member, who hasn’t been determined yet, will also join Zillow’s board.

‘Sell the brand,’ ‘breathe the brand,’ ‘bleed the brand,’ are all-too-common terms used in the marketing field. Recent trends are showing us that it might be time to start paying more attention to the products being sold. The early 2000s bred a ‘live for today’ mentality. Now, it seems consumers are remembering how to live for tomorrow. The relevance of quality and functionality in products is peaking, and consumers are not going to invest in a brand alone. They’re on the lookout for what the product has to offer.

Technology and Online Competition

The rise of technology and Internet shopping has changed the game for brands. Showrooming (Link to Showrooming Article) poses a threat to brick and mortar retailers, and consumers can easily go to a third party website like Google or Amazon to look up product bells and whistles, competitors, and reviews. The brand name isn’t as prominent of a factor anymore when it comes to consumers purchasing the latest tech. Shoppers aren’t buying a plasma screen TV because it was made by Sony. They are distinguishing their budget, shopping around, and getting the most for their money. The decision lies with the product’s quality and coolness factor.

How to beat it: Maintain a good brand reputation, but make sure to leave ample marketing spend for individual products. In the production phase, focus on your product quality and make sure to have a leg up on your competitors. Innovation is always a good place for investment. Consumers are on the prowl looking for the latest and greatest products.

The Bunker Mentality

As consumers shake off the recession, housing collapse, job losses and the general sense that ‘nobody’s safe’, they’ve emerged with something of a bunker mentality – an emphasis on preventing, preparing, saving, hedging and otherwise getting ahead of potential disaster. According to a recent Mintel Report, 52% of Millennials think a lot about their financial future, and 86% of consumers state that product durability is important or very important. The social ‘hype’ of brand appeal has been tossed to the side to make way for more practical purchases. Consumer caution can be manifested as a reluctance to spend. But it can also be illustrated by a desire for products that promise protection.

How to beat it:

So what will people spend on? Products and services that help them ‘prepare for the worst.’ In more quotidian terms, that means opting for goods that won’t go bad, break down, wear out, or otherwise not live up to every dollar spent. This has raised the appeal of things like all-inclusive package holidays, where the vacationer is guaranteed to stay within budget. Warranties give consumers comfort that brands believe in their own products and have shown a lot of success for sales.

The Takeaway

If your brand is wilting, quality products and innovative marketing may be one of the only remedies for its cure. Consumers want products that give them the most bang for their buck. Before you let it hit the market, make sure your product is something you can endorse.

When Ad Age reported on a multi-million dollar ad fraud operation late last month, those behind the scheme shut it down immediately. But now, slightly more than three weeks after the story published, the operation is back in action.

Once again video ads in nearly invisible windows are being run on legitimate websites via banner ad buys. Such video ads can be sold for 20 times as much as the banner ads, with the fraudsters pocketing the difference.

Online security firm Telemetry, which uncovered the fraud, believes around 100,000 of these bogus ad impressions are now sold each day. The number is nowhere near where the operation stood at its peak, but giant brands such as Unilever are still paying for this inventory.

A Zillow purchase of Trulia would create a dominant search website for U.S. house hunters, reshaping an online industry the companies helped popularize.

Zillow, the largest U.S. real estate website, is seeking to buy No. 2 Trulia for as much as $2 billion in cash and stock, according to people with knowledge of the matter. An agreement may be announced as soon as next week, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Talks are ongoing and may not lead to a deal.

The companies help buyers and renters find information on homes, generating revenue by selling advertising and charging Realtors to place their listings prominently.

“Did you see a post for Showtime’s Masters of Sex?” Instagram recently asked people who use the photo-sharing service. Others have been quizzed about ads run on Instagram for clothing retailer Hollister and hospital brand Airbnb.

These surveys are one way Instagram and its advertisers are gauging whether the service’s ads are working — or turning users off.

Instagram has been running these surveys since it rolled out ads last fall, but more people may be noticing the questionnaires now because Instagram has ramped up the number of ads and advertisers on its service, said a spokesman for Instagram parent Facebook.